PromZ Vak 3 · 2024

called Cafea silver skin and the other Arabica black—are fully approved. The funny thing is that products made from coffee grounds have a strong coffee association. The material is dark, and if you smell closely, you can even smell the coffee. Cups made from silver skin don’t have this association and are therefore ideal for tea drinkers.”

Product Development

Once the raw material had all the necessary approvals and certifications, it was time to make attractive, desirable products from it. The most logical products were, of course, coffee and tea cups. But, according to Lisanne, this involves quite a bit. “We received a lot of feedback from the market, particularly about reusable cups made from ‘thin’ material. Many users think they are disposables and throw them away. It was clear to me that the cup needed to have a certain thickness. Additionally, it’s important to consider aspects like cleaning and dishwashing. The bottoms of our cups are rounded, so no water remains. The grooves on the sides are not only aesthetically pleasing but also ensure that you can pour boiling coffee or tea into the cup without burning your hands. By now, we make many more products from the material besides coffee and tea cups. Take a look at our website to see what we produce. Everything is also highly customizable.”

Coffee Recycling Service

To make it a closed loop, Lisanne offers a coffee recycling service. “We offer this to companies that drink at least 600 cups a week. That means you use about 5 kilos of beans a week. So, if you have 30-40 people in the office, you’ll reach that. It’s simply a subscription service. You get a bin, and we exchange it when it’s full. We charge between 2 and 3 cents per cup, depending on the amount of waste. You get half of that amount back from us as store credit. This makes it very clear what is made from that waste, and the products from the waste stream return to the company. We pay out that amount every quarter, which you can spend in our webshop. You can buy coffee cups, plant pots, and other products. This way, we close the loop as much as possible. That’s where we want to go with our company: a completely closed system.”

The Companies Making an Impact with Lisanne

2010: VerdraaidGoed

In 2010, VerdraaidGoed started designing products focused on preserving material value and closing the loop. They use waste and residual materials as raw materials for new products, giving them a second life as new, iconic products.

2016: Beat the Bag

Beat the Bag reduces the use of plastic bags and gives promotional material a second life. By upcycling advertising banners from and for companies into reusable bags, we help advance the circular economy in the Netherlands. These durable and high-quality bags are lovingly sewn in social workshops, providing social and local employment .

2017: Coffee Based

Each year in the Netherlands, over 100 million kilos of coffee grounds are produced. Much of it ends up in waste incineration. That’s a waste! Coffee Based ensures this material is better utilized by making biobased products from this waste.

2020: Coffee Recycling Service

To reduce the mountain of coffee grounds waste, we teamed up with Maas and Prezero and developed the Coffee Recycling Service. The coffee grounds we collect together no longer go to waste incineration but are used as raw material.

Remco Addink, Lisanne Addink-Dölle